by Will Leitch
When Stephen King, Richard Russo, and Chris Bohjalian blurb a book, I’m going to pick it up. And I’m so glad I did! How Lucky is told by Daniel, who happens to be on his porch in Athens, Georgia, early one fall morning and sees a young woman get into a down-at-the-heels tan Camaro. When he later learns that a veterinary student at the University of Georgia, Ai-Chin Liao, has gone missing, he realizes that she was the woman he saw, and becomes determined to help the investigation. Daniel has one of the wriest senses of humor I’ve come across recently, and his observations of a southern football town on gamedays are priceless. His job as a customer service representative for a regional airline, responding to irate tweets by passengers, also gives him plenty of fodder for commentary. The small supporting cast of characters, especially his best friend Travis, are a hoot. Oh, did I mention that Daniel has a degenerative illness and uses a wheelchair? He does, which heightens the sense of unease the reader will feel as he digs himself deeper into this mystery. Leitch took the central conceit of the Hitchcock classic “Rear Window” and turned it up to 11.
Likes: Daniel’s voice is amazing. Also, friendship is at the core of this book, and Daniel’s lifetime friendship with Travis and their ability to communicate with one another without many words really stood out. His relationship with Marjani, who works for him as an aide, is also very interesting: how do we parse our affection for people who are hired to take care of us in the most intimate ways?
Dislikes: Was Daniel’s mom really in Jamaica????? I need to know. Seriously, there were just a few loose threads or random asides that snagged in my brain (why do two old people both look like they died in 1983? Was that an especially bad year?), but otherwise I had no criticisms!
FYI: lots of profanity (Daniel is a customer service rep on Twitter) and some scenes of violence. Daniel discusses his thoughts on his illness and death frequently.
Liz Helfrich 